Chris Beatty came from West Virginia to Vanderbilt a few weeks ago, and did a phenomenal job of closing one of VU's best signing classes in years. Beatty, VU's offensive recruiting coordinator, spoke to the media on bringing in this class on Wednesday afternoon.

On quarterback Lefonte Thourogood, who de-committed from Virginia Tech to sign with VU:

"We were able to talk to him about the benefits of our program, and I think he saw things to change his mind."

Later

"Education, I think [was the difference]. If he'd gone to [Virginia Tech], he'd have gotten a great education as well. But Vanderbilt is among the best in the country at what it is, and then, you want to play in the SEC. You want to play against the best players in the country, to prove that you're one of the best.

"No disrespect to where he came from they've got an extraordinary program, but we've got some building blocks in place to try to build on what we have, too."

On his athleticism:

"Athletically, he's what you want. He's 6-2, 6-3, 230 pounds, 10.8 [400-meter dash], as strong as you want to be....